The stomach organ shrinks?

jaga13
jaga13 Posts: 1,149 Member
edited December 1 in Health and Weight Loss
I noticed on another post someone said as you lose weight your stomach will shrink and you'll feel fuller faster/with less food.

This doesn't sound right to me but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Of course the fat surrounding the stomach will eventually shrink as you lose weight. But the actual stomach organ, which most of us have stretched out over years of overeating -- that doesn't just shrink back to a smaller size without surgery, correct??

Replies

  • MommyMeggo
    MommyMeggo Posts: 1,222 Member
    I *believe* it expands when eating and returns shortly after digestion.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    no it doesn't shrink...once you are an adult like the rest of our bodies it is the size it will be.

    Our hunger cues change tho...with less food consumed we get to the point where we are not hungry on that amount of food...or we choose filling foods.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member

    stomach capacity imo is different than stomach size...

    not trying to be pedantic but the capacity can be changed due "hunger cues"
  • darrensurrey
    darrensurrey Posts: 3,942 Member
    Some anecdata for you: after a bowel op, I was on soup and ice cream for about 3 weeks. When I went back to solids, I was happy to eat half a child's portion of food.
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    edited April 2016
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    no it doesn't shrink...once you are an adult like the rest of our bodies it is the size it will be.

    Our hunger cues change tho...with less food consumed we get to the point where we are not hungry on that amount of food...or we choose filling foods.
    Our bodies aren't set in stone once adulthood is reached. The stomach is like the skin. It will stretch when overfilled and if it's overfilled often and over a long period of time then it will shrink when given the chance but may not shrink all the way back to the dimensions it would have been if it hadn't been chronically overfilled.
    Some anecdata for you: after a bowel op, I was on soup and ice cream for about 3 weeks. When I went back to solids, I was happy to eat half a child's portion of food.
    That's been my experience multiple times when losing weight or after extended times of eating smaller meals.

    If I fall "off the wagon" and eat large meals multiple days in a row, that gets me back to needing more volume of food before I feel full. It then takes multiple days (or weeks) of eating smaller portions for those smaller portions to feel satiating.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited April 2016
    Hunger cues and feeling either hungry or full are hormonal responses. When you eat less, this alters your leptin and gherlin hormones and you will not feel as hungry...this is why anorexics can eat practically nothing and legitimately claim they aren't hungry. Once you start eating more again, appetite increases as these hormones change yet again...this is why many people while adjusting to maintenance and eating more often experience almost insatiable hunger in the beginning.

    It really doesn't have anything much to do with stomach shrinking or whatever....it's hormonal.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    seska422 wrote: »
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    no it doesn't shrink...once you are an adult like the rest of our bodies it is the size it will be.

    Our hunger cues change tho...with less food consumed we get to the point where we are not hungry on that amount of food...or we choose filling foods.
    Our bodies aren't set in stone once adulthood is reached. The stomach is like the skin. It will stretch when overfilled and if it's overfilled often and over a long period of time then it will shrink when given the chance but may not shrink all the way back to the dimensions it would have been if it hadn't been chronically overfilled.
    Some anecdata for you: after a bowel op, I was on soup and ice cream for about 3 weeks. When I went back to solids, I was happy to eat half a child's portion of food.
    That's been my experience multiple times when losing weight or after extended times of eating smaller meals.

    If I fall "off the wagon" and eat large meals multiple days in a row, that gets me back to needing more volume of food before I feel full. It then takes multiple days (or weeks) of eating smaller portions for those smaller portions to feel satiating.

    yah no I don't think so..and neither does the Smithsonian
    http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/does-dieting-actually-make-your-stomach-shrink-180955521/?no-ist

    It will expand to accomadate current food intake but then it goes back to it's size.
    Numerous imaging studies have shown that the stomachs of obese people are really not that different from those of the rest of the population, indicating that there is little relationship between body size and baseline stomach size, says Levinthal.
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    seska422 wrote: »
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    no it doesn't shrink...once you are an adult like the rest of our bodies it is the size it will be.

    Our hunger cues change tho...with less food consumed we get to the point where we are not hungry on that amount of food...or we choose filling foods.
    Our bodies aren't set in stone once adulthood is reached. The stomach is like the skin. It will stretch when overfilled and if it's overfilled often and over a long period of time then it will shrink when given the chance but may not shrink all the way back to the dimensions it would have been if it hadn't been chronically overfilled.
    Some anecdata for you: after a bowel op, I was on soup and ice cream for about 3 weeks. When I went back to solids, I was happy to eat half a child's portion of food.
    That's been my experience multiple times when losing weight or after extended times of eating smaller meals.

    If I fall "off the wagon" and eat large meals multiple days in a row, that gets me back to needing more volume of food before I feel full. It then takes multiple days (or weeks) of eating smaller portions for those smaller portions to feel satiating.

    yah no I don't think so..and neither does the Smithsonian
    http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/does-dieting-actually-make-your-stomach-shrink-180955521/?no-ist

    It will expand to accomadate current food intake but then it goes back to it's size.
    Numerous imaging studies have shown that the stomachs of obese people are really not that different from those of the rest of the population, indicating that there is little relationship between body size and baseline stomach size, says Levinthal.
    Have you seen My 600 Pound Life? Some of those stomachs are huge. Dr. Now has done sleeve gastrectomies and pulled out large sections of stomach that he removed.
  • RollTideTri
    RollTideTri Posts: 116 Member
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    no it doesn't shrink...once you are an adult like the rest of our bodies it is the size it will be.

    Our hunger cues change tho...with less food consumed we get to the point where we are not hungry on that amount of food...or we choose filling foods.

    That's what I've always heard too but that study wasn't measuring hunger, they were physically measuring the volume inside the organ and found it to change in actual size. One study isn't definitive but it's interesting. Of course "smaller" could mean less flexible and elastic, so not able to distend as much, who knows.

    It's not true that organs and tissues don't change size in adults. They do for a variety of reasons.

  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    no it doesn't shrink...once you are an adult like the rest of our bodies it is the size it will be.

    Our hunger cues change tho...with less food consumed we get to the point where we are not hungry on that amount of food...or we choose filling foods.

    That's what I've always heard too but that study wasn't measuring hunger, they were physically measuring the volume inside the organ and found it to change in actual size. One study isn't definitive but it's interesting. Of course "smaller" could mean less flexible and elastic, so not able to distend as much, who knows.

    It's not true that organs and tissues don't change size in adults. They do for a variety of reasons.

    see my quote from the article in the Smithsonian magazine article where they took images...
    seska422 wrote: »
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    seska422 wrote: »
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    no it doesn't shrink...once you are an adult like the rest of our bodies it is the size it will be.

    Our hunger cues change tho...with less food consumed we get to the point where we are not hungry on that amount of food...or we choose filling foods.
    Our bodies aren't set in stone once adulthood is reached. The stomach is like the skin. It will stretch when overfilled and if it's overfilled often and over a long period of time then it will shrink when given the chance but may not shrink all the way back to the dimensions it would have been if it hadn't been chronically overfilled.
    Some anecdata for you: after a bowel op, I was on soup and ice cream for about 3 weeks. When I went back to solids, I was happy to eat half a child's portion of food.
    That's been my experience multiple times when losing weight or after extended times of eating smaller meals.

    If I fall "off the wagon" and eat large meals multiple days in a row, that gets me back to needing more volume of food before I feel full. It then takes multiple days (or weeks) of eating smaller portions for those smaller portions to feel satiating.

    yah no I don't think so..and neither does the Smithsonian
    http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/does-dieting-actually-make-your-stomach-shrink-180955521/?no-ist

    It will expand to accomadate current food intake but then it goes back to it's size.
    Numerous imaging studies have shown that the stomachs of obese people are really not that different from those of the rest of the population, indicating that there is little relationship between body size and baseline stomach size, says Levinthal.
    Have you seen My 600 Pound Life? Some of those stomachs are huge. Dr. Now has done sleeve gastrectomies and pulled out large sections of stomach that he removed.

    because they are covered in fat...viseral fat is not a good thing

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/792621/how-long-before-stomach-the-organ-shrinks

    read the article in the Smithsonian magazine I posted where the Mayo clinic did studies.
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    edited April 2016
    From the Smithsonian magazine link:
    the stomach capacity to relax does actually shrink when there is dietary restriction

    From the NYT link:
    Among the dieters, gastric capacity was reduced 27 percent to 36 percent, on average, depending on how it was measured.

    So, both articles say that the room inside the stomach (capacity) is reduced. The part that holds the food is smaller so the stomach does shrink from a practical standpoint of having less room to fill before the stomach is full.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    seska422 wrote: »
    From the Mayo Clinic link:
    the stomach capacity to relax does actually shrink when there is dietary restriction

    From the NYT link:
    Among the dieters, gastric capacity was reduced 27 percent to 36 percent, on average, depending on how it was measured.

    So, both articles say that the room inside the stomach (capacity) is reduced. The part that holds the food in smaller so the stomach does shrink from a practical standpoint of having less room to fill before the stomach is full.

    The stomach capacity to relax goes down but that didn't say the stomach organ shrinks just like the NYT link...capacity does not indicate it stretches and shrinks and stays bigger while fat...and the actual organ gets smaller as we lose weight that is like saying as you lose weight your hip width reduces because the organs are getting smaller when it fact it's just fat going away.

    but not going to argue about this you believe what you want.
  • DrifterBear
    DrifterBear Posts: 265 Member
    edited April 2016
    I believe it does, but have no idea technically how that works. It definitely doesn't have to do with losing weight though, if true, it has to do with the capacity resulting from how much you're stick in there. I remember this documentary on competitive eaters and both Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi, two of the most successful eaters, trained by eating huge amounts of lettuce or other lower-calorie food to 'stretch' their stomach. They were both thin, but could eat insane amounts of food since their stomach had the capacity. I have noticed for me, if I'm overeating, I'm more hungry initially when I try to cut back, but quickly get used to it. And after a couple months of eating small portions, if I try to go out and have a huge dinner, I can't eat 1/2 the portion I used to easily put away.
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    seska422 wrote: »
    From the Mayo Clinic link:
    the stomach capacity to relax does actually shrink when there is dietary restriction

    From the NYT link:
    Among the dieters, gastric capacity was reduced 27 percent to 36 percent, on average, depending on how it was measured.

    So, both articles say that the room inside the stomach (capacity) is reduced. The part that holds the food in smaller so the stomach does shrink from a practical standpoint of having less room to fill before the stomach is full.

    The stomach capacity to relax goes down but that didn't say the stomach organ shrinks just like the NYT link...capacity does not indicate it stretches and shrinks and stays bigger while fat...and the actual organ gets smaller as we lose weight that is like saying as you lose weight your hip width reduces because the organs are getting smaller when it fact it's just fat going away.

    but not going to argue about this you believe what you want.
    I just think that we aren't talking about exactly the same thing.

    The OP was asking about feel fuller faster/with less food, which is a capacity question. Both articles say that capacity can be reduced.
  • jaga13
    jaga13 Posts: 1,149 Member
    seska422 wrote: »
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    seska422 wrote: »
    From the Mayo Clinic link:
    the stomach capacity to relax does actually shrink when there is dietary restriction

    From the NYT link:
    Among the dieters, gastric capacity was reduced 27 percent to 36 percent, on average, depending on how it was measured.

    So, both articles say that the room inside the stomach (capacity) is reduced. The part that holds the food in smaller so the stomach does shrink from a practical standpoint of having less room to fill before the stomach is full.

    The stomach capacity to relax goes down but that didn't say the stomach organ shrinks just like the NYT link...capacity does not indicate it stretches and shrinks and stays bigger while fat...and the actual organ gets smaller as we lose weight that is like saying as you lose weight your hip width reduces because the organs are getting smaller when it fact it's just fat going away.

    but not going to argue about this you believe what you want.
    I just think that we aren't talking about exactly the same thing.

    The OP was asking about feel fuller faster/with less food, which is a capacity question. Both articles say that capacity can be reduced.

    The feel fuller faster/less food is what someone else mentioned. I (the OP) was wondering if the actual organ shrinks :)
  • seska422
    seska422 Posts: 3,217 Member
    edited April 2016
    jaga13 wrote: »
    seska422 wrote: »
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    seska422 wrote: »
    From the Mayo Clinic link:
    the stomach capacity to relax does actually shrink when there is dietary restriction

    From the NYT link:
    Among the dieters, gastric capacity was reduced 27 percent to 36 percent, on average, depending on how it was measured.

    So, both articles say that the room inside the stomach (capacity) is reduced. The part that holds the food in smaller so the stomach does shrink from a practical standpoint of having less room to fill before the stomach is full.

    The stomach capacity to relax goes down but that didn't say the stomach organ shrinks just like the NYT link...capacity does not indicate it stretches and shrinks and stays bigger while fat...and the actual organ gets smaller as we lose weight that is like saying as you lose weight your hip width reduces because the organs are getting smaller when it fact it's just fat going away.

    but not going to argue about this you believe what you want.
    I just think that we aren't talking about exactly the same thing.

    The OP was asking about feel fuller faster/with less food, which is a capacity question. Both articles say that capacity can be reduced.

    The feel fuller faster/less food is what someone else mentioned. I (the OP) was wondering if the actual organ shrinks :)
    Well, I Googled "morbidly obese stomach size" and came up with this:

    Size, Volume and Weight of the Stomach in Patients with Morbid Obesity Compared to Controls
    Conclusions: No significant differences were found in anatomic measurements of the stomach between control subjects and patients with morbid obesity.

    So, from an actual organ point of view, no significant differences according to that study. From that, stomachs wouldn't shrink because they aren't enlarged compared to non-obese people.
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,053 Member
    To sezxystef's point, stretchiness vs. size.... prolonged deficit eating reduces stomach stretchiness (capacity) but not organ size.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    ahoy_m8 wrote: »
    To sezxystef's point, stretchiness vs. size.... prolonged deficit eating reduces stomach stretchiness (capacity) but not organ size.

    exactly.

    I linked in another discussion here on MFP where a very knowledgeable poster explained it better using the hormone aspect of it.

    Our organs do not grow/shrink (unless by disease) after we are adults.

    Our stomach is an organ...can we temporarily stretch it out...sure...that's a feeling of overfull imo.

    Can we do it repeated? absolutely...to the point that it expects it and if we don't we have "feelings" of hunger that are reduced as it gets "used" to less "stretch"...

This discussion has been closed.